Pretoria will keep its name for the time being, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said on Thursday. South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news quoted him on Friday as saying a number of considerations would have to be weighed up before any decision was taken on changing the name of the capital city to Tshwane.
Mittal Steel South Africa reported headline earnings for the quarter ended March 31 of R684-million — a 21% decline on the previous quarter. The company — formerly Iscor — said this was 57% down on the same period last year. Headline earnings a share for the quarter were 153, down from 195 cents in the previous quarter.
Cerebos, a local investor, has announced a R85-million expansion and relocation project in the Coega Industrial Development Zone in the Eastern Cape’s Nelson Mandela metro. Managing director Len Chandler said on Thursday the expansion meant the company would remain in the metro, retaining and even increasing jobs for the local communities.
The unsuccessful Labour Appeal Court bid on Thursday by security industry employers to have the ongoing strike declared illegal was a grim reminder to both parties of how crucial negotiations were, South Africa’s Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Friday.
A generic performance contract for municipal managers will be unveiled on May 30 and all their performance contracts must be renegotiated within the next six weeks, says Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi. The minister rejected complaints that some municipal managers were earning packages in excess of ministers "or even the president" — that were over R1-million a year.
There are fears that the Donen commission investigating South African abuse of the Iraq oil-for-food programme may not regain momentum after public hearings were abandoned as they were about to start. The commission backed down in the face of a Pretoria High Court challenge by a witness it had subpoenaed to testify first. Bad drafting of its powers left it little choice.
Possible irregularities in the passage of legislation to eliminate cross-boundary municipalities are being investigated by the Public Protector. On May 8 the Cape Town office of the Public Protector handed a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, asking her to explain how the 12th amendment to the Constitution was passed despite confusion over the recording of votes that took it past the required two-thirds majority.
When Bernardo Provenzano was arrested in mid-April, a few people in the computer-gaming industry might have suspected Electronic Arts of having a hand in it. What better publicity for the newly released <i>The Godfather</i> game than to have the Sicilian Mafia’s "boss of bosses" arrested outside the town of Corleone?
New Zealand is not for sale, despite somebody in neighbouring Australia trying to offload the nation of four million to the highest online bidder. With a starting offer of just one cent, brisk bidding for the prime chunk of South Pacific real estate quickly boosted the price to Aus 000 before eBay pulled the plug on the auction this week.
Christopher Columbus, who died in the northern Spanish city of Valladolid 500 years ago, ended his days alone and bitter, a fate shared by many other great explorers. Spain’s Conquistadors also came to a sticky end against the backdrop of violence and internecine rivalry which thrived in the 16th century, during the brutal conquest and colonisation of Latin America.